China sees Malasia, the Philippines and Indonesia, Papua new Guinea and Australia New Zealand and the Islands of the Pacific as weak, in need of proper resource and intellectual management. Now the America under Biden is cozying up to China while Russia stands as their traditional enemy, we in the South Pacific are vulnerable.

"China has rapidly built its profile and influence in the South Pacific. While the COVID-19 pandemic does provide China an opportunity to further grow its influence in the Pacific, the cost will be much higher. Greater resolve from the West, greater awareness within the Pacific, and growing financial demands at home and abroad may all make the price of China’s aspiring influence in the Pacific too high for the country to bear. While China has far greater resources to bring to bear, Australia and New Zealand have far deeper resolve. The year ahead will reveal just how much further China is willing to go and how much it is willing to spend to build its influence in the South Pacific".

http://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/risks-china-s-ambitions-south-pacific

The Village Idiot and other China-appeasers won't like this one:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-25/why-china-building-border-walls-with-vietnam-myanmar/13068344

Fascinating: In 'Against the Grain', James C. Scott proposes that, in early societies (including China), walls were often built precisely to keep people in, so that they could be taxed and drafted for forced labour. Brilliant book !

Of course, walls (think Hadrian, and perhaps China) can also be built in the realisation that one's armies can't go any further. The Rhine river acted in this way to keep the barbarian tribes out of the Roman Empire, but that didn't work all that well, given that the rag-tag mob called the 'Goths' invaded Rome itself.

And of course, the Mongols and the Manchus both invaded China through the walls.

Joe

I suggest its time for a "Rudolf Hess" type mission, whereby the Morrison glove puppet, Simon Birmingham crash lands an ultra-light aircraft in far western China. If they wont answer the front door we'll sneak in the back door. From there Simon being adequately provisioned with a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a can of Fanta, can make the arduous trek east, undetected, to the Palace of the Emperor Xi Jinping. Simon bearing gifts for the emperor, a lump of Aussie coal and a chunk of Aussie iron-ore, the Chinese just love Aussie coal and iron-ore, can't get enough. Simon could then talk turkey with Emperor Xi Jinging, telling Xi cut the crap or else!

Should Simon fail in his mission, the I suggest a bit of "gun boat diplomacy" will be required. A flotilla of ex Sydney ferries could be sent up the Yangtze to show the Chinese we mean business!

Foul-Mouth,

In a similar fashion to the Romans' Limes along its frontier with Germania the wall is there to keep barbarians out not to keep the Chinese in.

You need to think about the idea of the Chinese nation-state and how it constructs itself to understand the Chinese.

I know you're not into the Arts things like history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, etc., which obviously makes it hard for you to understand these sorts of things.

Foul-Mouth,

You might also want to think about it as an extension of the Great Wall to delineate the new Empire of the Chinese Communist Party vis-a-vis the Other (ie non-Chinese to you).

I know these sorts of concepts are difficult for you to grasp but please persist because I have great hope that you will be able to learn things with our continued discussions.

Village Idiot,

I would suggest that there would be far more people trying to get out of China these days than trying to get in.

So there's plenty of room for appeasers :)

Joe